Neptune Day!

Today we have officially crossed the equator! (The actually crossing was at 4am this morning- my roommate and I were going to try and wake and flush our toilet at the exact moment we passed over the equator to see if doing so would cause a rift in the space/time continuum when the water didn’t know which way to flush…but sadly we slept through our alarms so we will never know.) For all of us aboard the Explorer today is a holiday referred to as Neptune Day. The greatest thing about Neptune Day is that we get a day off from classes. The morning began with a 7:30am wakeup call by crew members parading through the hallways singing and banging on pots and pans. There was a ceremony outside on the 7th deck introducing the King and Queen of Neptune and their royal court. If it was your first time sailing across the equator you were supposed to go through a traditional SAS initiation in order to cross through. This entailed having fish guts poured all over you, swimming across the pool, and kissing Neptune’s fish. It was pretty gross and incredibly fun. After going through the initiation one goes from being a scummy “pollywog” to a worthy “shellfish.” By the end, the entire upper deck and swimming pool was flooded with water and fish guts. This is also the infamous day on board when the head shaving happens! A LOT of people shaved their heads…including a lot of girls! They even sold raffle tickets all week for a chance to have the captain shave your head upon crossing the equator (a great honor aboard the Explorer). After the morning ceremonies most of the students spent the afternoon catching some of the most intense rays of sun on the planet. We have our first global studies exam in the morning so everyone is frantically trying to finish the readings and get some last minute studying in.

Life at Sea…
Shipboard life is really laid back and casual. We fill the days with classes, homework, napping (we are sleep deprived from continually turning our clocks forward), laying out on the pool deck, ten o’clock snack time, and playing board games. The ship has about 200 board games available for check-out. At night we have optional workshops called community colleges. This is when somebody on board (usually a faculty member) decides to teach a workshop or seminar on a topic they specialize in. So far I have gone to a how-to work your digital camera class (it is still a lost cause for me) and a couple lectures on changing the world. There are new ping-pong tables on the 4th deck and there is a basketball/volleyball court on the 7th deck for recreation. We also just had an activities fair this week where we could sign up for and start different clubs. I went a little nuts and joined the Ambassador’s Club, the Students of Service, a How to Change the World Club, a fashion show committee, and an adopt-a-grandparent program. It sounds like a lot but you have to remember that I live on a ship and there is not a lot else to do except be in clubs and go to meetings. We have inter-port lecturers and inter-port students from each country on board for portions of the voyage. The Ambassadors Club meets with and helps to orient these representatives during their stay on the ship. We are also in charge of the formal Ambassador’s Ball toward the end of the voyage. In the Change the World Club we attend seminars about methods of making a difference and achieving your goals. The speaker is one of the teachers on board and was voted best teacher at UCLA recently. His messages are very entertaining, motivational, and empowering. Students have been crowding the dining hall and even sitting on the floors just to hear him speak. For my part in Students of Service, I am helping to organize a huge fundraising auction that will take place on the last stretch of the voyage to raise money for charity. I also will get to hang out with and interact and eat meals with the senior passengers on board in the adopt-a-grandparent program. On another note, I took a tour of the bridge the other day and learned how the ship is controlled. It was really interesting and really made me realize that I am actually on a ship in the middle of the ocean. The view from the bridge is amazing…there is absolutely no land in site! The first officer told me that we are over 250 nautical miles away from the nearest land (I don’t know how many normal miles that is, but it is pretty far). The seas haven’t been as rough lately, which is good for all the people who get seasick. It is not as fun for me though because I like to watch people stumbling everywhere and running into things. On a kind of funny but gross note (insert disclaimer), the chief engineer of the ship has issued a high alert warning for our sewage system and claims it to be in extreme danger of a total system shut down because people continue to flush foreign objects down the toilet. (sorry… too much information I know, but I happen to find it really funny)

Brazil…
Our next port of call is Salvador, Brazil and we will be arriving on Wednesday morning. I am organizing an independent trip to Lencois (about six hours west of Salvador) for a couple days while we are in port. We are going to go hiking and see some caves and waterfalls in a more rural part of the country. I don’t know much about the area but it has been highly recommended to me by several people. I am very excited/nervous and feel very adventurous getting a group of people together and just going. I will be spending the first day and a half in the port city of Salvador, attending a welcome reception at a local university with Brazilian students, hopefully seeing a soccer game, and going to a festival before I hop on a bus to Lencois. They have warned us that Brazil is our most dangerous port and that we will be hard-pressed to find English speakers. As if that isn’t scary enough, I found out that contrary to what most people think, they speak only Portuguese in Brazil, not Spanish. I have been practicing a little bit but I find foreign languages very difficult. It should be interesting to say the least! Wish me luck…I couldn’t be more excited.

A booze cruise…?
For those of you who have been asking me about the alcohol situation over international waters, I thought I would clear a few things up for you. Our dean has decided to allow pub nights on board every night at sea except the night before and after we port. You know when pub night on board is about to begin because you see a rush of students heading to the pool deck for happy hour or drinking hours in actually clothes as opposed to the pajamas they have been wearing all day. It is a close to “going out” as we can get on the ship. The rules for pub nights are pretty humorous and entertaining to us all. A maximum of four drink tickets must be purchased hours in advance after standing in an often long line, and can only be used during specific hours. The new favorite pick-up line around goes something like, “Can I buy you a drink ticket?” Alcohol consumption is heavily regulated and choosing to drink or not to drink is not an issue or the center of social activity. In my opinion SAS is much more than just being the party boat that people often speculate. (After all we do have to go to class every day…even on Saturdays…so that is all I have to say on that issue.)

P.S. HAPPY EARLY 22nd BIRTHDAY JOSH! I miss you and hope you have a great one, sorry I can’t be there but I’ll bring you home a cool gift!

Amber’s Deep Thought of the Day:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time
-T.S. Eliot